The MOST important things?

[The Stranger]

What would you say are the most important things to define about the world your story takes place in? I feel that definitely the cultures and any magic would be important, but what else do you think would be useful? What would you make the most important in your story?

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

Culture is my #1 (everything from values, patriarchy/matriarchy, food, religion, language, medical system, etc.)

Setting / Geography is pretty important. Does it take place in the snowy mountains? Arid desert? Sandy beaches? Rocky cliffs? Rolling plains? Each of these will have an impact on the culture so (beyond the obvious- where the story takes place) it becomes important in deciding the way the village/kingdom relates to one another- what do they do for food? How do they travel? Do they live in small scattered communities or giant urban centers?

 

[K.S. Crooks]

The level of technology in your world. Are there lasers and interstellar space travel, sea-faring ships, arrows and swords, only travelling by horse with rocks and sticks. If someone is ill or injured what can be healed and how is it done.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

To understand how I will answer the question there are a couple of things that I would like to point out. First, my worldbuilding depends on the story. This means that each bit of worldbuilding has a different emphasis and a different depth depending on the story. For example, in one story my character is an attorney and the property law of that world affects how magic works and that is integral to my story. Therefore, my world building in terms of property law will be super deep. However, I won't world build torts all that much. And yet for another story, I don't focus on the law or legal system that is unimportant and so my world building is cursory at best. No matter what I do the focus of my worldbuilding is dependent upon my story.

Because of this basic principle, I have created a three-tiered structure that guides me about depth and breadth of world building. The first tier is what I call primary world building. This is world building that directly affects the story and the characters. This is where most of the depth of the world building comes into play. This is usually limited to three areas of the world that I consider to be important. So, for the property law novel I am planning, that means I will focus on property law, legal procedure, and how a property law/magic law attorney is viewed in society and how they react to that view. Note: I have three separate story threads in this book the other two are a politician and a soldier. For these two I will focus on the governmental structure, military structure, strategies and weapons.

The second tier I call the secondary pieces of world building. These are items of world building that directly affect the primary world building elements or that indirectly affect the character. These are treated with less depth but, by its nature, are broader. They have some explanation as to how they work and affect the primary world building elements. These, of course, have a mostly indirect effect on the plot.

The third tier is the tertiary world building elements. These are meant to flesh out the world to give it the veneer of being alive. These need not have an effect on the story but often do have an effect on the secondary world building elements and are somewhat tangential to the actual story. These are the broadest but have the least depth and are often made up on the spot. So for the property law novel that would be things like street names, business names, types of food vendors around town that my MC visits, names of weapons companies, names of battles in history that are relevant to a discussion and characters but unimportant to the story, religious tenets because it is there merely as a veneer and plays no central part to the story, and other interesting tidbits needed to flesh out the world.

This structure helps me to limit my world building to the most essential elements while also allowing me to create the illusion of Tolkienian depth. It's sneaky, it's a bit lazy if you follow the Tolkeinian method, but it works for me since I find world building to be a bit drudgerous.

 

[skip.knox]

I agree with Brian on this. What is most important at any given juncture is driven by the story. For example, monsters.

I have goblins in my story. Axiomatic was that there had to be a lot of them. A Horde, in fact. That meant I had to come up with some reason why so many of them would be on the move together. As a direct corollary, I had to figure out why they had come together just then--not a decade earlier or a century later.

Much else about the goblins developed only as the story developed. It became convenient, then interesting, then bloody inconvenient, to have them be afraid of water. They can't swim, they cannot operate boats. Other aspects were more arbitrary. When I visualized seeing the Horde, I had a sudden image of locusts, specifically their movements. So now I had monsters that could leap. This likewise presented both opportunities and challenges.

At the other end, though, it can also be important _not_ to define something. In my case, it's magic. For a variety of reasons, I wanted magic in this story to be unreliable, both in nature and scope. I would not do to come up with complex rules. This, too, presented some really interesting (to me, anyway) angles. One that I like but have not much developed is that human beings love order and pattern. If it's not there, we invent it. So, despite magic being unpredictable, humans would come up with all sorts of explanations to explain the observed behavior. This doesn't fit much with the current story, but will figure large in others.

Anyway, I offer these examples by way of illustrating why the original question for me only makes more sense in the specific rather than in the general instance.

 

[Russ]

I think Brian and Sk have hit the nail on the head.

The most important element of your world building are the elements that allow you to tell your story properly and best reflect and amplify the theme you are pursuing.

 

[petr3pan]

Took a class with published SFF author Christine Norris a while ago, and here's a link to the link where she explains everything she thinks matters! "...and then, I shall write a book, about my adventures!": Guest Blog! On World-Building in Fantasy She's a pretty successful writer, and she also includes a whole database you can use to help your worldbuilding. Yay technological candy! Have fun!

 

[Holoman]

What would you say are the most important things to define about the world your story takes place in? I feel that definitely the cultures and any magic would be important, but what else do you think would be useful? What would you make the most important in your story?

For my WIP I started with the basics, which for me is how do people live on a day to day basis. So things like how do they eat? Who farms the food? What kind of transport is there to go and visit people or keep in touch? What jobs do most people have? Who is in charge - e.g. political system.

I find it easiest to start with a historical human system, like ancient Rome, then I research how things operated there and use it as a base for how my society works.

A lot of it I tend to make up as I go along, when it becomes important to the story then I flesh it out in more detail in my notes so I stay consistent.

 

[Darkfantasy]

It's important to define what's important to your story. If your world doesn't have Magic no point in creating it. If your book only has one culture on an isolated island - no need to show contrast in cultures. Where as if your Fantasy book looks deeply at something like the seasons and the climate (natural disaster type novel) it's important to establish those things. So I would say the most important things to define are what takes centre (ish) stage in your novel. One thing is daily life (of course) that's going to occur in anything you write.

All the best love

 

[Lunaairis]

I always start with a character and then build the culture around what I want their beliefs to be/ how the world would reflect on them. I'll go though many changes, where I figure out some neat cultural stuff that my main character should totally abide by. And so I'll change back stories for my cultures and such. Maybe add another moon, give the world two suns etc.

The level of technology is decided when I figure out what my character is going to wear or how they get around, or what they live in.

Then the story will arise from what would be the strongest mental/physical attack against my character.

 

[WooHooMan]

I think everyone here is a little off. In my opinion, the answer as to "what's the most important thing" is much simpler.

Ethos.

You can work out the setting to the broadest or the tiniest details but if your setting doesn't have character, it won't resonate with anyone. A setting, no matter how fleshed-out, will never be more than a backdrop without ethos.